Clause 31
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
8:00 pm
David Heath (Shadow Secretary of State for Justice & Lord Chancellor, Ministry of Justice; Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I accept that, but at the moment the provision gives comfort to the authority that it will have reasonable time to respond. I agree that common sense suggests that a complex complaint will take longer to investigate. However, the clause does not give any comfort to the complainant in cases where the responsible authority simply delays responding. For example, the responding authority may not respond for 12 months. It could respond on 31 December to a complaint made on 1 January. I assume that the commission would apply its discretion in those circumstances, but that complaint would then be time barred, however unreasonable the response of the authority. Reasonableness works both ways and there should be not only a reasonable period for investigation, but a reasonable expectation that the authority will respond in a timely way to a complaint that is made to it.